Take youth offending. The Queensland Labor government, desperate to win an election this year, last week announced that detention was no longer the last resort for youth! You read it correctly. It is a return to the 19th century, literally. As the JRI’s Director Dr Mindy Sitori said of the ‘plan’; “Locking up children is already costing Queensland taxpayers over $218 million per year, while a new 80-bed youth detention centre to cater for the overflow will cost more than $600 million in building costs alone.” And as she rightly pointed out, the “punitive approach is failing Queenslanders on every front – creating a backlog in the court system, dangerous overcrowding in detention centres and an overflow into adult watchhouses that continues to violate the basic human rights, safety and wellbeing of children as young as 10.”
Australian politicians lock more people up, for longer. By Greg Barns, P&I